“They’re stuck bloody fast!” She adored that he sounded so desperate. “I hate this damned dress.” He stepped back, his breathing erratic, and raked an agitated hand through his already mussed hair. “I fear desperate times call for desperate measures.” He stalked toward his nightstand where the bellpull was.
“Please tell me that you are not going to call for help?” Because that would be mortifying.
“Don’t be daft, woman.” He snatched something up and stalked back to her, then right in front of her wary eyes, he flicked open his razor. “I’m going to cut you out of the damned thing.” Then, before she could argue, he spun her around and did just that. The blade was so sharp that it sliced through her sodden laces like butter, and before she knew it, her cumbersome court gown was a puddle at her feet.
He didn’t bother even attempting to untie the ribbons at the front of her tight stays, and simply sliced through them too. Closely followed by the shoulder seams of both that and her thin chemise. Witha wolfish grin, he snapped the razor closed and tossed it, then ripped every stitch of her undergarments away.
Instinctively, Portia almost covered herself with her hands, but the way Leo’s gaze appreciatively raked her body made her just stand there while he took it all in.
“Bloody hell but you’re beautiful.” The reverence in his voice made her believe him. “Come here.” She wasn’t usually one who responded well to an order but she liked that one. Liked more how utterly divine it felt to finally feel his skin against hers.
When he kissed her, it was with a hunger that she had never experienced before and he thoroughly plundered her mouth as they staggered to the bed. He pushed her backward onto the mattress, his hungry eyes still raking her up and down as he dispensed with his breeches. His uncaged erection drew her eyes like a moth to a flame and held her gaze for the longest time before she dragged it up to his face, wondering why he still hadn’t joined her on the bed so he could put it to excellent use. “What’s the matter?”
“I’m just giving you time to change your mind.… Are you sure you want to do this?”
His thoughtfulness both humbled her and melted her heart. “I am going to explode if we don’t.” She reached out her hand and he smiled as he took it, then laughed as she yanked him onto the bed on top of her. “But you should probably know that you are my first. Just in case you were wondering.”
He stared deep into her eyes and swallowed as if that humbled him, before his dimples slowly emerged on either side of the most sinful smile she had ever seen. “And you should probably know that I fully intend to be your last too. Just in case you were wondering.”
His kiss felt both decadent and poignant and Portia happily lost herself in it as fresh desire kindled anew. He tore his lips from hers to worship every inch of her with them instead. He started with her breasts, which died and went to heaven as he suckled her nipples to sharp points. Then he kissed his way down her abdomen, the insideof her thigh and her calf on one side, before he went back up the other way on her other leg. His tongue found that wanton, greedy nubbin of nerves at the precise moment it screamed for more attention, and in no time she was writhing against his mouth with one of her hands tangled in his hair while the other fisted the sheets. Unbelievably ready to climax again despite just experiencing the most monumental one of her life.
She was right on the cusp when he shifted position and completely covered her with his body and his breathing was just as labored. But because the wretch was noble to his core, he once again hesitated. “You need to invite me in, Portia. I need to know that you are sure.”
“Take me,” was all she said and he did. Sliding into her with one smooth but gentle thrust.
Bizarrely, despite expecting it to, the intrusion didn’t hurt at all. She was too wet and too ready for her body to more than register a moment’s shock that he was buried all the way inside her. That evaporated the second he began to move inside her and all she could think was how perfect it felt. How perfectly they fitted together. Moved together. Melded together. Almost as if she had been made for him and him for her because even their hearts seemed to beat in complete synchronicity.
Then all at once, any thoughts at all became impossible because nothing else mattered beyond where their bodies joined and how that joining made her body rejoice. Only this time, when she tumbled into exquisite oblivion, he was right there with her. Staring all the way into her soul and calling her his darling as they touched heaven together.
Chapter
THIRTY-TWO
Breakfast was in full swing when she strode into the room a strategic ten minutes before Leo, hoping that she didn’t look like a woman as thoroughly and gloriously ravished as she was. Repeatedly. “Good morning.” They hadn’t talked about what last night meant, or even if it meant anything, but Portia and Leo had both agreed that it probably wasn’t wise to get his mother’s hopes up.
Letitia’s teacup paused midway to her lips while both Abigail and Emilia stared at Portia with interest. “Good afternoon.” It was obvious that they all already had suspicions. “Am I allowed to ask what happened to you and Leo last night after you abandoned us so scandalously at the palace in the middle of His Majesty’s reception?”
“There was an incident.” While she intended to keep a great deal of what had happened last night a secret, she had to give her prying mother-in-law something. “A catastrophic incident with my feathers.” Portia might not have Kitty’s talent for telling a ripping yarn, but all three ladies were in fits of giggles by the time Leo arrived in the breakfast room with the morning post a good ten minutes later.
Letitia abruptly stopped laughing to glare at him. “Did you really set your poor wife’s head alight and then try to drown her in several gallons of water?”
“Sadly, I am guilty as charged. But in my defense, they were extenuating circumstances and not all of them were of my making.” He flicked through the letters and began distributing them. Most went first to his mother. “Word of your triumphant return to town has clearly got out as they all feel like invitations.” He tossed two down on the table in front of his chair. “Only bills for me.”
Then he handed the final one to his sister, who, to Portia’s mind, did a very poor job of hiding that it had come from her beloved Percy because she cracked it open straightaway and struggled not to sigh aloud.
“Who is that from?” Leo was already suspicious.
“Nobody.”
“That’s a big soppy grin for a nobody.” To all intents and purposes, he wandered to the covered tureens on the sideboard to help himself to some food, but Portia just knew the lovely morning was about to take a very bad turn when Leo snatched the missive from his sister’s hand.
Abigail tried to grab it but he had already read all that he needed to. “This is from Percival Bloody Digby!” His rage was as instant as it was predictable.
“Give that back!” Abigail shot up from her seat, ready for a fight. “It is private and none of your business!”
“This is absolutely my business!” He scrunched the letter in his fist and jabbed the air between them. “How many times do I have to forbid you from having anything to do with that dangerous scoundrel before you deign to listen?” Then, because the red mist had descended, and he had quite forgotten how to be reasonable, he decided that laying the law down was his only option. “Well no more, Abigail! While you live under my roof, you will abide by my rules and it will be a cold day in hell before I ever allow you anywhere near that ne’er-do-well ever again!”
And off he went in typical overbearing Leo fashion, slamming the door behind him, leaving Abigail on the brink of tears and everyone else stunned by the ferociousness of his outburst.
